


The Bridge Between Them

by greetingsanddefiance



Category: Bluff City Law, Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Messy Families, More characters to come
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-13 00:51:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21235412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greetingsanddefiance/pseuds/greetingsanddefiance
Summary: “I don’t like you, Dad.” Sydney looked up at him, her cold eyes suddenly blazing. “Have you forgotten that?”Something sparked in Elijah’s expression. “You don’t like me, that’s fine, I don’t need you to. Can’t Drift with me? That’s okay, we can find another co-pilot. But Sydney, you are a gifted Jaeger pilot, and we need you back in the fight. If not co-piloting with me, then with someone else. Because in case you hadn’t noticed, this world’s running out of heroes.”It was a long moment before she responded.“Okay.”





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Farisya made me write this.
> 
> I love Bluff City Law so much and Pacific Rim is my favorite movie, so it was only a matter of time before I mashed the two together. That said, I wouldn't have written this without the ass kick, so thanks, friend! 
> 
> (PS Thanks for the beta-reads, Shirogone and cousininthebronx!)

_8th January 2025, 0900 hours_

Sydney Strait shivered as she pulled back the entry flap of her makeshift tent-office and ducked inside. The oiled canvas that made up the walls blocked most of the Alaskan winter wind, but she took care to snap the doorway closed and zip it behind her as quickly as she could.

She hadn’t practiced law in a physical office in longer than she could recall. Heck, before leaving the Pan Pacific Defense Corps in fury and disgrace a few years previously, she hadn’t practiced law at all. But in the grey, fearful days of the Kaiju War, things like a distance-studied college degree and lapsed Tennessean paralegal licenses were still far more education than most had, and the will to fight that Sydney somehow still had in spades was nowadays so rarely turned to altruistic measures.

Sydney was looking down at her case files when she heard the tent flap unzip and the heavy breathing of someone who had just walked the uphill trail from the closest Wall construction site. Without looking up, she made a “come in” motion.

“You really do look down on us, don’t you.”

Sydney’s head snapped up. She took in the sight of him, a man who looked thirty years older than he had a few years ago, clad in a navy blue coat and military issue snow boots. Her whole body went reflexively tense. 

“Carla,” she called, hoping her assistant was nearby and would hear her over the wind, “what part of ‘my father isn’t welcome here’ didn’t you understand?”

“The part where your mother dies.”

***

_Twelve Years Ago_

There wasn’t a question asked by any of them so much as a consensus reached without words once the fourth kaiju hit Vancouver and the giant mech that killed it hit the news. Carolyn was holding a brochure when Elijah came back from the office that day. Her husband looked at it for a long moment, and then at his wife. He nodded. She nodded back.

It was Sydney who broke the silence.

“I’m enlisting too.”

Her mother and father exchanged another look.

“I doubt we could stop you,” Carolyn said.

“You saw what they said on the tv,” Sydney pressed on. “They want family members and couples and siblings and parents and children. People who are close. Mom, I could pilot with you, I bet.”

“Well, first we have to train up,” Elijah pointed out. “They need people who can fight physically as well. Your mom and I aren’t star high school athletes like you, and it’s been a minute since my football days.”

“Don’t worry,” Sydney said, confidence shining in each word. “I’ll make a plan. We start at six in the morning, sharp! I’ll go find your running shoes, Dad.”

***

“I’m not coming back.”

“Sydney, I—”

“You think we can Drift after what happened? You think we can run any kind of combat mission after Manila? Dad, we got the Sorianos _killed_. Maria and Edgar are dead because you and I, we fucked up. Because when I saw what you’d done, I couldn’t hold my end of the Drift and I destroyed our own neural handshake. And after that—” she shook her head violently.

“Sydney,” Elijah said, his voice barely audible over the wind. “I know it’s my fault, what you saw. What I did. And if I could take it back, I would. I would never have made those choices. But I can’t undo anything.”

The wind howled louder.

“But what I can do right now is ask my amazing daughter, my brilliant and passionate and fierce daughter whom I love without abandon and am desperate to have back in my life, to come back to the PPDC. Sydney, Della has a plan. She’s Marshal now, and after we all transfer to Hong Kong, she’s going to put it into action. And we’ve got a Jaeger. She wants us running point on what she’s got set up.”

The wind howled some more before Sydney said anything.

“I don’t like you, Dad.” She looked up at him, her cold eyes suddenly blazing. “Have you forgotten that?”

Something sparked in her father’s expression. “You don’t like me, that’s fine, I don’t need you to. Can’t Drift with me? That’s okay, we can find another co-pilot. But Sydney, you are a gifted Jaeger pilot, and we need you back in the fight. If not co-piloting with me, then with someone else. In case you hadn’t noticed, this world’s running out of heroes.”

It was a long moment before she responded.

“Okay.”


	2. Chapter 2

_Eleven Years Previously (The Jaeger Academy) _

Sydney lurched forward out of the Drift rig and promptly threw up into the bucket the instructors had left in front of her. To her left, Briana was doing exactly the same thing.

Dr Deemer, the pons scientist and lead Drift instructor, glanced down at her screen and then back up at the pair, clucking her tongue in sympathy.

“I’m sorry, Miss Strait and Miss Johnson,” she said after letting them both recover for a moment, “but you still haven’t achieved more than seventy-one percent alignment, and at this point, it’s probably best that we stop forcing the issue. We’ve given you three full-Drift trials, and in my experience, if you aren’t above eighty percent within one trial, you are extremely unlikely to achieve full compatibility no matter how hard you work in the Kwoon and in training.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Sydney said quietly. She and Briana clambered to their feet and accepted the glasses of water the technician handed them. After rinsing out their mouths, they grabbed their packs and left.

In the corridor, Sydney glanced sideways at Briana. “I’m sorry, Bri,” she said. “I wish we were compatible. I really do. But Dr Deemer has a point.”

“I know,” Briana said, her resignation apparent. She had exhausted several other possible Drift partners already and chances were looking slim that she would find a potential co-pilot. “I’m as okay with it as I’m going to be. And at least you’re still in with a chance.”

“Yeah, but I can’t see either of my parents wanting to Drift with me when they’ve got each other. They didn’t stop me enlisting but I don’t think they really want me fighting.”

“Who knows, though. Something might yet change.”

***

“I don’t think we have a choice.”

Elijah and Carolyn exchanged a look and sighed, almost in unison. “You’re sure this isn’t something I can train my way out of?” Carolyn asked.

“Unfortunately, typically the answer is no when it’s this degree of battle stress,” Dr Deemer answered. “You have a rather severe case, and we’re lucky it hasn’t bled over into Mr Strait more than it has. Which means that while you are almost certainly going to be cut, he can still try again for Drift compatibility with another candidate.” She looked back down at her file and paged through her notes. “My recommendation, Mrs Strait, is that you look into one of the other officer paths that the PPDC offers, and Mr Strait, you pursue Drift training with your daughter.”

Elijah sucked in a sharp breath. “With Sydney.”

Dr Deemer nodded. “Yes. Your odds for Drift compatibility with her are far higher than with any other candidate we’ve tested you with, which is the majority of those still looking for potential co-pilots. If you still want to pilot a Jaeger, she’s your best bet.” She closed the file and looked right at him. “And I know I don’t need to tell you how much we need Jaeger pilots. You’d be our first parent-child co-pilots, but there’s a precedent setter for everything, is there not?”

Elijah exchanged another long, slow look with his wife. Then he nodded. “Okay. I’ll talk to her and if she’s willing, we’ll give it a try.”

***

_ Present Day _

Sydney and her father had maintained almost total silence on the flight from Anchorage. She’d spent the hours staring fixedly out of the window while Elijah read through a set of files. He glanced over at his daughter on occasion but she refused to make eye contact.

The chopper landed at the Hong Kong Shatterdome just after dawn. The chaos of the landing strip parted ways and two uniform-clad figures made their way up to greet them. Sydney peered at them through the rain and broke into a smile. 

“I guess hell froze over, Ranger,” said Marshal Della Bedford as she handed Sydney an umbrella.

Sydney chuckled. “Permission to hug you, ma’am?”

“Granted,” laughed the commander of the Hong Kong Shatterdome. They hugged for a brief moment before letting each other go. She then beckoned the young man who had followed her onto the landing strip forward.

“Ranger Strait, this is Emerson Howe, lead on the Mark III Restoration Project and one of our most promising cadets. He’ll be showing you around the base. He also selected the candidates for your Drift compatibility trials should you find yourself unable to Drift with the other Ranger Strait.”

Elijah was studiously avoiding eye contact with anyone. Sydney spared her father a brief glance before smiling at Emerson and extending her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr Howe.”

“And you, Ranger,” he said, shaking her hand quickly and then breaking eye contact to look at his feet.

Marshal Bedford had been watching all of this with an assessing eye. “Mr Howe, please take Ranger Strait to her Jaeger. And you, you come with me,” she said, looking at Elijah.

“Yes ma’am,” Emerson said, sketching a brief salute. He beckoned to Sydney and they set off into the Shatterdome.

“You going to tell her?” Della asked, looking sideways at Elijah as they headed for one of the side elevators.

Elijah rubbed the back of his neck with one hand and said nothing for a moment. “I think it depends on if she’s even remotely willing to try Drifting with me.”

Della sighed. “Elijah, it’s the end of the world and that beautiful daughter of yours is made of a fire even the Jaeger Academy’s brightest will struggle to match. I’m pretty sure she’ll burn almost anyone willing to try, whether or not she wants to. You’re our only hope, so: work it out.”

“I’ll do my best,” Elijah said finally. “The rest is up to her.”

**Author's Note:**

> More to come!


End file.
